Sex differences in emotional processing

Recent studies suggest that there are sexual differences in emotions. Women present stronger affective responses than men to some stimuli and they are better at recognizing and expressing emotions, as well as at remembering emotionally loaded events and showing empathy. Likewise, men are more aggressive. Women are more depressive and tend to think in their emotions during stressing events, in contrast to men, who tend to evade unpleasant emotions. Most of those sexual differences are present since childhood and can be partially attributed to different brain processing and to the action of sexual hormones. The present paper discusses the biologic and social origins of these sexual differences, as well as, their possible implications for some aspects of daily life.